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It was an incredible experience, including first-rate lectures/workshops delivered by a mixture of top academics and classroom practitioners. Supportive staff and peers quelled occasional bouts of impostor syndrome. It was important to feel attached to my College (Fitzwilliam), especially during the second year when researching and writing my dissertation. My Supervisor (Dr Matthew Neal) helped me acclimatise to the College and feel welcome despite being a part-time student. His enthusiasm and commitment to supervision was outstanding and he really did challenge my thinking at times, albeit in a supportive manner. Dr Aitken, as my tutor, was also instrumental in helping me feel a part of the Fitzwilliam community. At ICE, Sue Brignell provided guidance and made sure that we did not fall foul of Cambridge’s various rules and regulations. Everyone involved in the course showed interest in the students’ work and were happy to help where they could. Michael Fordham, Lizzie Mills and Dr Nigel Kettley all demonstrated that they were prepared to go above and beyond – as long as students were doing what they could for themselves.
The course itself proved flexible and was, by its nature, inter-disciplinary, with a blend of Education and History in particular. However, it proved possible for students to borrow from other areas, such as the social sciences, if it meant pursuing relevant goals. Students were supported to be ambitious and creative within their academic disciplines.
Throughout my time studying the course, and since, my students have benefitted from me approaching some of the teaching and learning in different ways than I would have before. For instance, they are growing passionate about pursuing cognitive psychology in the classroom as I am following one of the residential weekends. I will be writing an article based on my dissertation due for publication in February 2019. Currently I am investigating routes into doctoral study and have already received offers.
Steven Driver (January 2018)
Going into my fourth year as a teacher, I wanted a new challenge. Yes, I wanted to be a better teacher, but really I wanted to be a better English teacher. Cambridge’s fancifully titled ‘Advanced Subject Teaching’ MSt course appealed for three main reasons. Firstly, the course is designed for teachers, so the residential study blocks all take place during the school holidays, allowing you to study part-time over two years whilst maintaining your teaching job. Secondly, the course is designed for English teachers (or History teachers). Thirdly, it is one of the few courses that is both academic and educational in focus, allowing me to develop in ways that a Literature only, or Education only, Master’s degree wouldn’t. So, I applied, interviewed via Skype, and ended up having an excellent two years of part-time study.
Jonathan Monk (December 2017)
The first year of the course is modular, based around four residential teaching blocks in Cambridge throughout the year, and is followed up with weekly VLE tasks. The breadth of content allowed me to broaden and deepen my subject knowledge by taking the sort of modules you would expect to find in an English Literature Master’s degree. The course was in its second iteration when I took it, and it has been well designed to logically build up the necessary skills of educational research you need to conduct the more independently orientated second-year dissertation project. The best aspect of the course? This was easily the chance to interact with a fascinating group of ten English teachers from a diverse range of backgrounds. Not only were there teachers from Dorset to Deptford, from academies to private schools, but we had teachers from Turkey, France, Germany and Texas! Quite the cohort.
Overall, the MSt has provided many benefits for me and my Department. A principal aim of the course is to bridge the gap between teachers and researchers, and it is your own action research which will form the bulk of your submitted work. Thus the course enabled me to devise, test and analyse innovative approaches to English teaching within my own school context. My Department has certainly benefitted from these, and my school is moving towards a more research-centred approach to improving teaching and professional development. Professor Helen Cooper, who presented at one of the residential study blocks, kindly agreed to come to my school to talk about Chaucer. In addition, I have spoken at conferences and published some of my work in the ‘English in Education’ journal, things I would never have been close to capable of doing without the expertise developed during the MSt.
If you are interested in applying, then do not underestimate the commitment involved in doing a part-time degree alongside a full-time teaching job! However, once you’re on the course the invigorating content and superb lecturers will motivate you to make the most from it. The cost can seem daunting, but there is funding out there (I was fortunate to receive the James Stuart bursary). There is also no ‘right’ time to take the course – I was one of the youngest on a course with English teachers ranging from a few years of teaching experience to decades.
One word to sum up the course experience: invigorating!